Military Blogs, Bugs & Contests II

This week is a doozy for me. I have to complete the PTA Newsletter, write a book review for Focus on Fiction, a read a New Spirit galley, write 1200 words a day, cover Atlanta events for Rejoice, prepare for thirdthursdays, meet my writing group/prayer partners, and finalize my aunt's passing, all while dealing with the stomach flu and a cranky Selah. I've completed most everything. But the thing that has me on lock the most is trying to come up with a good story for faith*in*fiction's short story contest. At first I wasn't going to do it. I'm trying to rewrite a novel for Dave's sake. And my black voice is just too loud and too much for some folks. And I really wasn't in the mood to wash it down to appease others. God made me this way. Bless him. So sometimes I just don't participate in these things. Yet, after my aunt's funeral I decided bump it two tears in a bucket i'll give it a try. I've lost you haven't I?
Anyway, after I made this great decision I found a few distractions that I want to bring to your attention. Not because I want you to write a sucky story so that J. Mark Bertrand could win. But that may keep you motivated as you write.

I've been reading two military blogs-one from an Agnes Scott College student(my alma mater)serving on the 48th Brigade Combat Team and one from Mustang 09 a National Guard Soldier. Three soldiers from the 48th died on Monday, so I'm sitting here waiting from news from Spc. Schreck instead of writing. But these blogs tell you so much of what is going on in Iraq through the soldier's eyes. We're always talking about realism in our writing. Why don't we go to some sources that may give us a real view of things. This picture was taken from Mustang 09. It is a sandstorm--Shamal. Wow!

Mustang 09 writes his experience with this storm:
Breathing is painful, as each inhalation is accompanied by what seems to be a pound of desert sand. You can’t see unless you are wearing glasses or goggles, because no matter what direction you move, the sand buries itself in your eyes. Clothes, skin, hands and teeth are immediately coated with a gritty dry film. But duty is duty, so we trudged off towards the gate.

There is a hard and heroic beauty in that description I could have never imagined to write myself. And I'm thankful for the job they are doing. I have five cousins and a host of friends over there. We all do.

The other thing is the Zotob virus. I spoke about that on a previous post. But there is another worm--WORM-RBOT.CBQ. Go to trendmicro.com. If you use Mozilla Firefox like me you have to use Internet Explorer to scan your pc for this virus.

Ok. Now. Let's write something.

Dee